


Tether

by Kirjava3456airbender



Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: Aged-Up Character(s), Anxiety, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, No Sex, No Underage Sex, Not Beta Read, Platonic BDSM, Rope Bondage, We Die Like Men, also not proofread whoops, bondage as a coping mechanism, but aang is naked so, but it's sweet so it's okay, platonic bondage, probably very ooc if I'm being honest, sickeningly sweet tbh
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-29
Updated: 2020-06-29
Packaged: 2021-03-04 02:48:26
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 936
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24976360
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kirjava3456airbender/pseuds/Kirjava3456airbender
Summary: Zuko helps Aang work through his anxiety with some platonic bondage, that's it, that's the fic.
Relationships: Aang/Zuko (Avatar)
Comments: 7
Kudos: 140





	Tether

**Author's Note:**

> Is this me projecting onto Aang? Absofuckinglutely. I usually hc Zuko as super subby but let's be honest Zukaang are the switchiest of switches and I think this dynamic worked well with Aang's airbender nature (does that make sense? Idk, I'm very sleep deprived) also this isn't proofread at all sorry

If there is one thing Aang truly adores, it’s air and it’s freedom. He has never felt comfortable with the other elements, they feel borrowed or maybe even stolen in his hands, but air has never betrayed him, it’s who he is.

But sometimes, the air in his soul and body makes the anxiety that's always there, at the back of his mind, so much worse.

When you’re an airbender, it’s easy to feel like you’re at the edge of falling apart. Maybe falling apart is the wrong term, falling apart implies something solid being destroyed, a great tower crumbling to pieces. Aang has never felt like something solid.

He feels like he could turn into steam at any moment, and disappear into the air, like he’s fragile not in the sense of glass or ceramics but the fragility of a butterfly wing or a spiderweb. Barely there.

It’s his worst fear, that one day he’ll turn into dust and leave his friends and responsibilities behind, there’s so many of them. Sometimes he tries to center himself by remembering the things Toph taught him when she taught him to earthbend, all those years ago. It’s actually only been eight years since then, but he feels infinitely older. 

“Be like a rock.” She had said, and mostly he has mastered how to do it, but when the weight of responsibilities triggers the panic in his brain, all he feels is air. Like his hands and toes are barely there, like he could be blown away by someone’s breath, barely a puff of smoke.

In those moments he buries himself in bed, in his coarsest blankest, trying to feel the material on his skin and remind himself that he’s still *there*. He wraps tape around his fingers until the ends go red and tingly and he sinks his nails into the flesh of his face and arms in a desperate attempt to feel *present*.

In those moments, the only thing that really helps is Zuko. Zuko. A boy forged in fire who somehow emerged as the softest person Aang knows, Zuko who doesn’t carry the toughness of metal in his golden eyes but the softness of candlefire. Zuko who allows himself to be strong when Aang needs him to be.

“Hey, how are you feeling, can I help?” He lets Aang bury his face into his palm and smiles softly at him when he nods. “Do you need me to tie you up?” 

“Yes please.” Zuko slowly pulls him off the bed, taking care to press as much of his body to Aang’s as possible.

“Okay sweetheart, thank you for telling me. Do you think you can stretch on your own while I go get the supplies?” As he falls into the routine of things, Aang feels the cold fire of anxiety in his stomach dim a little, this is familiar, this is *good*, so he nods. As Zuko leaves the room he undresses slowly, relishing in the feeling of rough fabric scratching against his skin and then sinks into the stretches. When Zuko comes back he’s already well on his way to subspace, feeling loose and slightly dizzy.

“Okay now, can you remind me of your cues please?” 

“Traffic light system and a bell in my hand in case I go non-verbal, shake it if I need your attention, drop it if I need to get out of the ropes.” Zuko awards him with a kiss that he lets Aang turn hard and rough until they’re both panting and flushed.

“Okay I’m gonna start now, how are you feeling?”

“Green.” 

Zuko ties him up slowly and Aang’s worries melt away, he relishes the feel of the rope and the locked position of his arms and legs, the coolness of the tiny metal bell resting on his right palm. His breaths are shallower with the rope around his ribs and shoulders and it grounds him, makes him feel less air and more everything else. He feels his heartbeat in between his ribs, and he’s reminded that he’s *human*. 

He feels like flesh and muscle and not only wind shaped like a man. 

He also feels Zuko. His hands guiding him through positions and running down his arms and back, leaving hard kisses down his spine and on his sternum. He feels Zuko’s love in the tightness of the rope and the hickies he sucks onto his skin, in Zuko’s eyes. Zuko looks at Aang like he’s the only thing that matters, like the rest of the world could burn to the ground and he wouldn’t care as long as the two of them are together. And Aang is so in love with him it feels like a physical weight in his lungs, anchoring him to the ground.

Usually Zuko only ties him up for twenty minutes but to Aang it feels like years in the best way possible. The firebender unties him with deft hands, massaging his thighs and biceps to make sure blood flow is working right and then carries him to the bed, waiting for Aang to come out of subspace.

He strokes Aang’s brow until his eyes start losing their mistiness.

“Hey there, how’re you feeling love?” Aang sighs out a puff of warm breath into his neck and burrows his face against it.

“Good. I love you.” Zuko tightens his arms around the airbender’s waist and hums.

“Yeah? I love you too. Do you need anything? water maybe?” He feels Aang’s minuscule head-shake against his skin.

“Just stay with me. I only need you.”

And Aang knows it’s true, it’s always Zuko, only him.


End file.
